Georgi Karakhanyan 'Feels Bad' for Bellator 160 Foe Bubba Jenkins

Both of those fighters are former Bellator world champions and
aside from those two setbacks, which occurred more than five years
ago, Karakhanyan was among the best under the Bellator
umbrella.

Fast forward to today and Karakhanyan is fighting for his
figurative life to remain in contention for not just a title fight,
but also relevance. After winning nine straight that included the
capturing of the World Series of Fighting and Tachi Palace Fights
featherweight belts, the Moscow native lost the WSOF strap to
Rick
Glenn. From there, Karakhanyan returned to the Bellator fold
and submitted Bubba
Jenkins in the first thanks to a textbook guillotine, but
things quickly turned sour after that.

Karakhanyan suffered a torn ACL during training for a proposed
rematch with Freire and by the time he had it surgically repaired,
he said he rushed into a fight with Daniel
Weichel at Bellator 147, losing a unanimous verdict. After
finally healing up, he looked to bounce back against Pat Curran,
but he lost a lopsided decision at Bellator 155 in a fight where he
didn’t look like his typical “Insane” self.

“In my last fight with Curran, all I remember is the first two
minutes and after I got clipped with that left hook, I was on
autopilot and don’t remember anything,” Karakhanyan revealed to
Sherdog.com in a recent interview. “I had a great camp in prepping
for Curran and I felt at my best but I just made a mistake where I
got clipped by that left. That’s never happened to me ever in my
life where I got hit and then didn’t remember anything. The next
thing I knew after I got clipped was when I was in my locker room
and talking with my corner and I didn’t know what happened.”

Karakhanyan isn’t the first fighter to continue an entire fight
while being literally out on his feet and not remembering anything.
Mike Tyson famously revealed that same situation regarding his
first fight with Evander Holyfield in 1996 and Georgi was shocked
how he was able to continue without knowing what was going on.

“I was looking at the tape and I threw a good kick from the armbar
and I was in his guard, but I didn’t try to pass or anything,” he
continued. “Totally not how I fight. I didn’t do a lot of things in
that fight and that’s probably because I was on autopilot for
almost the entire fight. But hats off to both of those guys because
they beat me fair and square and they motivated me big time for
this fight coming up. I’m ready to destroy my next opponent.”

His next opponent is Jenkins, whom he will lock horns with for a
second go ‘round on Friday in one of the featured main card bouts
at
Bellator 160. Karakhanyan quickly dispatched Jenkins when they
first met, but while he doesn’t expect to get someone of Bubba’s
skillset out as easily this time around, the Milennia MMA
representative isn’t worried in the least as to what his foe will
do.

“It really doesn’t matter what he brings to the table this time
around,” he said. “I just feel bad for him that he’s going to be
standing in front of me. I am the hungry beast fighter who is
looking to take off your head. I know he’s on a three- or
four-fight winning streak and he’s probably looking at me, who is
on a two-fight losing streak. But honestly, I just feel bad for
him. I’m going to do everything I can to stop him and if I can’t
stop him, I’m going to torture him for three rounds.”

Karakhanyan is on the final fight of his current contract with
Viacom-owned promotion and he knows that he can ill afford a loss
on Friday. He said that his camp has been better than he could have
imagined and he believes there is virtually no way that Jenkins can
win.

“The only way to beat me right now is to kill me,” he said. “If he
takes me down, I think my jiu-jitsu will neutralize his wrestling.
He said he will stand with me, but I doubt that. Don’t be surprised
if you see me take him down and show him what real MMA wrestling is
all about. This is pretty much a do or die situation for me. I like
this feeling because I am going to showcase all of my arsenal and
all of my fighting skills. I just feel bad that he has to fight
me.”